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Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters
Striking miners dance and cheer after they were informed of a 22 percent wage increase offer outside Lonmin's Marikana mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, on Sept. 18. Striking miners at the mine said on Tuesday they accepted a management pay rise offer and would return to work on Thursday after six weeks of mining sector unrest that shook Africa's largest economy.
Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters
Striking miners gesture after they were informed of a 22 percent wage increase offer outside Lonmin's Marikana mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, on Sept. 18.
Reuters -- Striking platinum miners at Lonmin's Marikana mine in South Africa accepted a pay offer on Tuesday, ending six weeks of violent unrest that claimed 45 lives and rattled Africa's largest economy.
The strikers, grouped on a bare soccer pitch near the mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, cheered when they were told that management were offering a 22 percent pay rise, and said they would return to work on Thursday.
"I am happy - and forward with the struggle," said one of the striking miners, Sithembile Sohati.
"It's a huge achievement. No union has achieved a 22 percent increase before," Zolisa Bodlani, a worker representative at Marikana, told Reuters.
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- South African women protest police shooting of striking miners
- South Africa police fire on striking miners, killing 34
Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters
Striking miners dance and cheer after they were informed of a 22 percent wage increase offer outside Lonmin's Marikana mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, on Sept. 18.
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My hat's off to these people. Unlike Americans, the labor force of South Africa won't lie still for suppressed wages from their Nations Corporate profiteers.
American workers should be receiving a minimum wage somewhere between $35 and $45 an hour (with full company paid benefits), or demand to be paid in good old US silver dollars. Let's get wages caught up with the past forty/fifty years of PROGRESS and INNOVATION we keep hearing about from politicians and corporate profiteers. They've benefited from our suppressed wages long enough!
Domingo, you must not have a clue how the world works, definitely no clue how America works. With a minimum wage of $45 an hour not one company would survive, period. I'm making an assumption based on your title when I ask this but, is that why 10's of 1000's of people flood into the U.S. from South America everyday, because they think McDonalds can afford to pay people $45 an hour? I have to say that remark is just plain ridiculous.
My comment, every person in those pictures, every item on their bodies is a name brand (expensive) item. Every person wearing Nike, Adidas, Puma, Levis, I don't even have all name brand clothes for gods sake and I'm not crying about my pay.
If the job that you begged for, put on your Sunday best and kissed an interviewers ass for, doesnt pay enough, go get another job. Striking is extortion plain and simple. "I'll put your company out of business unless you give me more money" The mob does exactly the same thing.
Oh, and if it weren't for those "corporate profiteers" you wouldn't even have a job. They risk all their capital, they sure as hell are entitled to a profit. Clearly you're either wildly ignorant or a lifelong worker profiteer. When you have money left over at the end of the month (not including buying Nikes and Levis) does that mean your family has a profit? Think, Think, Think.
I would guess that the clothes that the folks in pictures are wearing are knock offs or 2nd hand. Bundles of used clothes are imported into African countries and other 3rd world countries from the US and Europe and knock offs are also common.
As far as workers striking, it happened in the US in the past and if it hadn't you would probably not enjoy the benefits you get from where ever you work. Striking workers were shot by goon strike breakers hired by the company owners in this country in the past. You should read your own history about the labor struggles in the past as it is obvious you haven't.
The mine is owned by Anglo-American Platinum. The workers wanted to be paid $600/month. With the extremely high price of platinum, you'd think this would not have been a problem. Someone is getting filthy rich and it's not the miners. People wonder why the rest of the world doesn't like America. Could this be part of the problem? Another American owned and operated corporation extracting natural resources from another country and paying the local population slave wages......and encouraging local police to shoot them in the back when they ask for a greater share of the profits from their own resources and labor.
This now brings the African miners' salaries up to $2.44 per DAY!
White genocide by assimilation.
When we have: Africa for Africans, Asia for Asians, White Countries for Everybody, what do we have overtime?
We have solid Black only and Solid Asian only countries, exclusively for Blacks and Asians, based upon exclusive genetics and culture. Culture is respected and so tolerable to these groups. They do not need to tolerate massive inflows of invaders and made to tolerate foreign cultures.
We have more and more non-whites in White countries since the right of Whites to exclusive territory is denied them.
We have fewer and fewer White people.
When we mix more non-whites and fewer Whites in the same living space, what do we get?
In time, White extinction. Its called White genocide because this does not happen by chance. It is being forced upon Whites just like a rapist does not take no for an answer.
How is this not so? How is this not White genocide?
Anti-racist is a codeword for anti-white.